Kona Fish Report, 11/21/03, Capt. Chip Van Mols reporting from the ROD BENDER
Q: When is the best time to fish in Kona?
A: Whenever it’s the best time for you to come to Kona!
Aside from a few days right on the full moon this month when it slowed down a bit (which is odd for here but the current went haywire) the fishing has been pretty darn good here all month long. Blue marlin of all sizes from very small to very large have been appearing in the wakes of the all the boats that have been lucky enough to get out fishing. The general consensus among the captains I talk to being they are averaging 2 or 3 bites a day from blue marlin. They are really varied in size from little buggers around 60 or 70lb to rather massive and everything in between the biggest to come to the scales recently in the 700lb range. I just got off the phone with a fellow Capt. who’s out today and he already has caught 2 blues, 80lb and 160lb, caught a mahi mahi, missed a mahi mahi and missed a striped marlin, It was only 10:00am and he’s out till 4:00pm. Makes me feel just great sitting behind a computer! Feeling a bit distracted now. Oh well, this brings me to another point. Late fall thru winter and into spring is our best season for variety fishing. Around this time of year is when our striped marlin show up with short nosed spearfish usually not far behind and it’s also the start of our mahi mahi season and they are all right on schedule this year and starting to build in numbers. If the blue marlin continue to hang around as they are now it’s gonna be grand slam city around here! Instead of trolling all day just to catch one measly blue marlin (awe shucks) from now thru March we can often catch several billfish in a day with a mahi or two or twenty thrown in to boot. We averaged 3 billfish per day last winter with our best day 7 stripeys and 2 spearfish (state record last year), all caught on lures and released with the hooks removed. Well also caught 15 yellowfin 15-25lb and 2 mahi that day, Good action fishing, gotta love a mahi or ahi or 2 thrown in almost daily for the BBQ. If blue marlin get scarce during this period then we can really have a ball with their smaller cousins (striped marlin and spearfish) by trolling 30lb, 20lb and 16lb stand-up tackle, great fun and that’s how we caught the 9 in one day last year. You just have to make sure you don’t charter a boat that only carries 130lb gear. 130lb gear in a bucket harness doesn’t really do a 50lb striped marlin much justice. Which brings me to another point that I forgot to mention. The average striped marlin here is rather small. Right now they are 50 to 100lb and mostly coming up as singles, which is good, and as they increase in numbers the size can go down. Last year when we started raising them in packs on our lures they were very small, averaging 30 to 40lb. I’m hoping that when they really bust loose this year they are more in their standard 40 to 80lb size with the odd 100+ thrown in, it varies year to year. Spearfish average around 30lb and are also coming up as singles right now but later we’ll start seeing them paired off and at the same time getting some bigger ones 45+. Average mahi mahi right now is on the large side, 25 to 50lb, they usually get smaller as the winter wears on but increase in numbers.
I spent a couple weeks in October with the boat out in dry dock replacing our Generator and did a TON of other things on my to do list which carried on another couple weeks. I’ve been out only a couple times since then and here’s how we did on the ROD BENDER.
Nov. 2, ¾ day with my daughter Jada and her friend Mercedes. I hadn’t been out in a month but the fish were right where we left them. We had 4 confirmed blue marlin bites and managed to tag a small one (100lb) for Mercedes, her first blue! We pulled hook on a big one after long run and the others looked 150lbs or so and they jumped off. We also had a couple bites that I didn’t see, mystery!
Nov. 9, ¾ day I went the wrong way, all zeros.
Nov. 16th, ¾ day with Jada. We caught a spearfish and an ono and jumped off a small blue.
Nov. 19, ½ day with Randy and his wife. Randy’s wife started us off with a blue marlin, tag and release 110lb on 50lb gear. We missed a stripey that looked 50lb or so and then hooked a double mahi mahi. Randy got a 30lb cow in the boat but his wife’s 45lb bull narrowly escaped the gaff at boat side. We missed another blue right in front of the harbor just before clearing the gear and calling it a day. Good morning!
We haven’t had a winter that was really good blue marlin fishing in quite awhile and this may be it. Quite possible that we’ll keep receiving wave after wave of them for some time to come, it happens here and we’re due. Any day now we’re going to start seeing double, triple and even fipple attacks from striped marlin. Spearfish and mahi are here and getting better. This time of year on the Rod Bender I carry 2 each of 12, 16, 20 and 30lb stand-up trolling gear as well as 2 each of 30lb, 50lb, 80lb and 130lb chair tackle. We adjust daily and on the spot to what we’re likely to encounter and how you want to encounter it. This is our fun, variety, and numbers season. All species swim in the same areas together here. Keeps it very interesting. Ahem. The more versatile you are this time of year the more fish you’ll catch and you’ll have more fun doing it! Let’s rock!
Tight lines, good fishin and ALOHA!
Chip
Capt. Chip Van Mols
Rod Bender Sportfishing
bvanmols@rod-bender.com
www.konasportfishingcharters.com
808-960-5954
Kona, Hawaii
He who loses to another does not get the satisfaction of losing to me !!!!!
